Marvel Goes to Hogwarts
by voidpartiallystars
Summary: Basically what I think would happen if the characters from MCU all went to Hogwarts together
1. The Beginning

"Thor, don't push me! You almost made me drop my owl!" Loki re-adjusted his grip on Muninn's cage as he and Thor rushed through the barrier to Platform 9 and three quarters.

"I am sorry brother, I can't help it, I'm so excited!" Thor pushed past Loki and spun around, looking in all directions to see as much of the platform as he could, almost hitting several people with his own owl, Huginn's cage. Loki was also taking in the sights, his eyes flickering all around, looking at all the people and listening to passing conversations. One in particular caught his ear:

"What house do you think you'll be in, Steve? With all that recklessness, you'd have to be Gryffindor."

"I'll be in whatever house the hat thinks is best, Bucky."

Loki had been thinking about the houses ever since he had received his letter. He'd gone over them a hundred times in his head, and he'd always come back to the house with the worst reputation, Slytherin. Ambition, cunning, slyness, he could relate to those. But he could also relate to the wittiness and cleverness of Ravenclaw. He was jolted out of his thoughts by Thor's arm clapping heavily around his shoulders.

"Don't just stand there, Loki! We've still got a few minutes before the train leaves, let's try to make some new friends!" Trapped by Thor's much bigger arm, Loki was dragged over to the boys whose conversation he had just briefly listened to. "Hello, friends! I am Thor and this is my brother, Loki!"

"Hey! I'm Bucky and this is Steve." Bucky looked as if he was about to say more but he was interrupted by sudden loud rock music. All four boys turned to look, along with most of the people around him. Another boy, already dressed in his Hogwarts robes was marching his way through the crowed, smiling cockily and lifting his sunglasses to the top of his head. He was followed by a boy and a girl who seemed to be half heartedly trying to stop him from drawing attention to himself.

"That's Tony Stark, isn't it?" said Steve.

"Yeah. He's supposed to be really smart along with being really rich, but everything else I've heard about him makes him sound like a real jerk." said Bucky as he turned back to Thor and Loki.

"Well, you've never actually met him, have you, Bucky?" said Steve. "I'd describe you as a jerk to other people, but we're still friends, aren't we?" Bucky and Thor laughed at that. Loki smiled, then noticed the clock.

"Thor, we have 2 minutes until the train leaves. We'd better get going, or all of the compartments will be full."

"Mind if we join you? Steve and I don't take up that much room." As he spoke, Bucky threw his arm around Steve's shoulders and grinned.

Thor grinned right back and replied, "Of course you must join us, new friends! We will all find a compartment together!" Then he grabbed Loki and proceeded to drag him over to the train while Steve and Bucky followed. As they moved through the crowd, Loki noticed a group of rather sinister looking students, dressed perfectly in their robes. He also saw that they were wearing some kind of badges, but they were too far away for him to see the details. They also passed Stark again, who was being lectured by the boy a girl who had been following him. Loki took the opportunity to steal Stark's sunglasses off of his head. Steve saw it, but didn't say anything. Stark could stand to lose one pair of sunglasses. Besides, it was kind of funny.

* * *

On another part of the train, Clint and Natasha were settling into their own compartment. Clint had taken out his hearing aids for the time being. Natasha wouldn't care if he messed up with his lip reading.

"What house do you think we'll be in, Nat?" She looked up from petting her cat. Clint knew immediately that he'd said the wrong thing.

"I'd rather not talk about houses, Clint."

"I just wanted to know if you thought we'd be in the same houses-"

"Which is why I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, Nat, even if we were in the same house, which honestly isn't very likely we'd still be in different dorms so I don't see-"

Nat's head was turned down, so Clint couldn't be sure what she said, but he thought it was, "I just don't want to be alone."

Suddenly Nat's face changed to one of concentration. "What is it, do you hear something?" Clint put his hearing aids back in and quickly adjusted to the chatter of people on the train as he picked up on the conversation that Nat had heard.

"We shouldn't have wasted time 'making friends' Thor, now there are no more empty compartments!"

"We're standing right here, Loki."

"Don't argue, Bucky, we just met them."

Nat and Clint's compartment door was flung open by Thor, who greeted them enthusiastically. "More new friends!"

"Do you mind if we try to fit in your compartment?" said Steve. Nat thought he looked kind of funny sticking out from behind the other three while still attempting to smile kindly. "Your compartment is the least full we've found." Nat and Clint exchanged a glance which involved Nat trying to give a stern look and being shot down by Clint's puppy eyes.

"We can make room, right Nat?" They both moved over to the window as Thor, Loki, Bucky and Steve fit themselves into the compartment. There was some awkward silence, then Thor spoke.

"Loki, are those not Starks sunglasses?"

* * *

Awhile later, after the candy lady had come by, they were all chatting comfortably with each other as the fields rolled by outside the window. The conversation had again shifted inevitably to houses.

"You two are siblings, right? So that means you'll be in the same house probably," said Clint as he bit the head off of a chocolate frog. Loki raised his eyebrows.

"Nah, I don't think so," said Bucky. "They don't really give off that sibling vibe. I would have never guessed you two were brothers if you hadn't said so."

"What do you mean, Loki and I are very close," said Thor.

"We don't really act the same though, Thor," Loki replied.

"What do you mean, of course we act similarly, we do everything together."

"That's not the same as acting the same Thor-"

"Never mind, I'm seeing the brothers thing now," interrupted Bucky. "But I still don't think you two belong in the same houses. I mean, I know we've only just met each other, but I'm seeing Gryffindor for you, Thor, and Ravenclaw for Loki."

"Really?" said Steve. "I was definitely seeing Slytherin for Loki."

"Isn't that the evil house?" asked Clint. Natasha hadn't been really paying attention, but now she looked up.

"Not necessarily," said Steve. "Slytherin qualities are ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness. Sometimes that combination can lead to a bad person, but so could many personality combinations."

"You really think that?" said Nat. Her face was hard to read, but Clint thought it was briefly in between hope and relief before it went back to her usual mask. "Well, Clint is definitely a Hufflepuff."

"What do you mean I'm a Hufflepuff, I'm clearly Gryffindor," said Clint, who was splitting the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans into equal groups for everyone to share.

"Yes, not Hufflepuff, I can tell," said Loki, completely strait-faced. Steve, Bucky and Natasha laughed.

Just then, the door of their compartment flew open with a bang. It was Tony Stark, and the girl and boy who had been following him earlier. "Hey gentlemen and lady, I seem to be missing a pair of sunglasses-"

The other boy put his arm out in front of Tony and said, "Do _not_ give them the whole spiel you gave the last compartment, that is how you do not get your sunglasses because what you do get is everyone in the compartment trying to kill you."

The girl spoke up. "I'm sorry, everyone, this is Tony and James, and I'm Pepper." She glanced back at the two boys, who were now arguing in whispers.

Tony stopped for a second to say "No, his name is Rhodey," and went back to arguing.

Pepper turned back and smiled at the group. "Have you seen a pair of sunglasses, Tony can't seem to find them anywhere."

They all spoke at once.

"Nope, no sunglasses here," said Nat.

"Loki, you had the sunglasses, right?," said Clint.

"Sorry, haven't seen them," said Steve.

"What sunglasses?" said Loki and Bucky.

"Loki, give me the sunglasses," said Thor.

Thor took the sunglasses out from under Loki's seat and handed them to Pepper.

"Thank you-"

"Thor."

"-Thor." Pepper held the sunglasses up in between Tony and James' still ongoing argument.

Tony looked down and said, "Hey, you found my sunglasses!" and Pepper herded the boys out of the compartment.

* * *

Thor, Loki, Bucky, and Steve were on the same boat as they crossed the lake. Clint and Natasha were unfortunately stuck with Tony, and Pepper. Rhodey was left to ride with some of the strange group that Loki had spotted earlier. When they rounded the corner to their first view of Hogwarts, Loki had to admit, it was incredible. It even rivaled the palace of Asgard. And the inside of the castle was just as amazing as the outside. The Great Hall's seemingly nonexistent ceiling was almost enough to distract him from his nervousness.

Almost.

He listened as the professor called their names. Bucky was the first of their group. He went up right behind Banner, Bruce, Ravenclaw.

Bucky sat down on the stool and waited. And waited. And waited. Loki started to wonder what could possibly be taking so long. Nearly five minutes passes before the hat finally shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!" Bucky seemed disappointed and upset as he took his place at the table. Loki saw Steve give him a thumbs up. It did not seem to improve Bucky's mood.

Next was Clint. Unsurprisingly, he was also placed in Hufflepuff. He sat next to Bucky and immediately started up a conversation which was probably mostly speculation about which house Natasha would be in.

Then, after many other people, it was Loki's turn. He forced himself to be calm as he walked up and he prepared himself to wait awhile. But he barely had the had on for a few moments before the hat yelled "SLYTHERIN!" His head was swirling with thoughts as he made his way to the table. The hat had barely taken _two seconds_ to decide. He'd thought that it would have been a little bit longer than that! He calmed himself just in time to see Thor walk up to the front.

Thor, of course, was in Gryffindor. The hat barely needed to touch his head.

Loki watched the other students he had met on the train be sorted, Pepper into Ravenclaw, Rhodey and Steve into Gryffindor, Natasha into Slytherin and, somewhat surprisingly, Stark into Ravenclaw.

Loki hoped that their newly made friend group did not separate because of the house differences. Despite what he had said to Thor, he really didn't want to end up all by himself. He looked down the table and noticed that most of the strange group from the platform was there.

The feast was enjoyable, but there was really no one for Loki to talk to at the Slytherin table, and he wanted to be left alone to think for a while about why the hat would so quickly place him in the "evil" house.

When the feast was over, Thor waved to Loki enthusiastically as the students left the Great Hall. Loki waved back slightly and then followed the rest of the Slytherin first years past the Ravenclaws down to the dark, creepy common room. Dark and creepy was ok with Loki, as long as he could get to bed. He barely noticed the other people in his dorm as he pulled the drapes of his four poster bed closed and lay down. Apparently he was had been more tired out by the day than he thought, because he fell asleep almost instantly, Tony Stark's re-stolen sunglasses falling out of his hands and onto his chest.


	2. Shield

"Bucky!"

"Go _away,_ Steve."

Steve continued to follow Bucky down the corridor anyway. It was difficult, as there were quite a few people heading to class in the other direction. Really, Steve should have been going that way too, but he'd had enough with Bucky ignoring him. Bucky pushed someone aside to get ahead faster. Steve apologized to the kid, then ran up a bit, and swung around the pillar right into Bucky's face, forcing him to stop.

"You've been ignoring me." Steve accused as he stared Bucky straight in the face. There was a pause as they looked at each other.

"I haven't." Bucky pushed past and continued walking again. This time Steve kept pace, as the hallway was starting to clear out since class was starting.

"Yes, you have Bucky! You've barely spoken to me since we came here." Bucky's narrowed his eyes at this. Steve wondered what he'd said wrong.

"We haven't had the opportunity. We sit at different tables and we're in different classes, remember?" This wasn't a good excuse, and they both knew it. They'd have plenty of free time; school had only just started. It had been two weeks since the sorting ceremony that had separated them into Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.

"It's been forever! I'm trying to be patient but I really think you feel better if you told me what was bothering you." Bucky stopped walking. Steve looked at him expectantly. "Well?"

"You're late for Transfiguration." Bucky walked into his classroom and closed the door, leaving Steve standing alone in the hallway.

* * *

It wasn't like Steve didn't try, Bucky thought as he slid into his seat. There was just no way Steve could understand how he was feeling. A small voice in the back of his mind whispered that he hadn't actually tried to explain anything to Steve yet. Bucky told it to shut up.

"Who's Steve?"

"What?" Bucky hadn't noticed, but today he'd sat right next to that one kid from the train. Clint, was it? He didn't remember.

"Oh, hi, sorry. It's you from the train, isn't it? Bucky? Wasn't Steve your friend? I thought he went into Gryffindor?" Clint though he was maybe asking too many questions at once, but what was he supposed to do? They were all legitimate questions. The boy who was probably Bucky blinked and shook his head a little before looking and Clint, slightly confused.

"Wait, I didn't say anything about Steve." Bucky looked at Clint suspiciously. "I didn't say anything at all, actually." He wasn't expecting his table partner to be so talkative.

"Oh, you did. You said shut up, Steve. I saw- I mean, heard you." Clint thought that now might be a good time to put his hearing aids in. He felt for them in his bag. Then his pockets. Then he bit his lip. "Oops." Bucky suddenly looked toward the front of the classroom. Clint looked too. The teacher was talking.

Bucky noticed that Clint seemed to have forgotten something, but he didn't really care. He just had to get through class.

* * *

Steve _was_ late for Transfiguration. But it's not _my_ fault, thought Steve. Bucky's just being stubborn. Oh well. He'll tell me eventually, or somebody, anyway. Steve arrived at his classroom and went in, trying to create as little of a disturbance as possible. Just because he was late didn't mean anyone else had to miss out on learning. The only open seat was next to a kid he'd only knew from seeing him in the Gryffindor common room. As soon as the teacher had finished giving them instructions on how to turn their matches into needles, Steve turned and introduced himself, because that was the polite thing to do. He might even make a new friend. He held out his hand for the other boy to shake. "Hi, I'm Steve. What's your name?"

"I'm Sam. Sam Wilson." Sam shook Steve's hand, even though he thought it was a little strange to be offered a handshake by an eleven year old kid. Then he remembered that he was also eleven and he did reciprocate the handshake. "I've seen you around, haven't I?"

"Probably. I haven't been in the common room that much though." Steve looked at the matches on their table.

Sam looked at his own match. "Have you been understanding anything the teacher's been saying about how to change it? Because I thought that you were just supposed to poke it and say the magic words, but apparently it's a lot more complicated than that." Sam looked back at Steve's match, which Steve quickly covered with his hand.

"Um, nope, haven't understood a thing, either." Steve kept his hand right where it was.

"Show me your match."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

"No!" Sam reached over and pushed Steve's hand out of the way to reveal a perfectly shaped needle.

"You just said you didn't understand it!" Sam poked at his match with no effect.

"Sorry, I didn't want you to feel bad for not understanding." Steve watch Sam try to change his match again. "Here, I'll help you. I'll ask the teacher for a new one so I can show you how I did it."

Sam made a face at his match, resenting it for not changing when he poked it. Then he looked at Steve. Maybe he could use a little help. "Thank you."

* * *

When class had finished, Bucky stayed until everyone had left. He had though that maybe Clint would stay and try to talk to him some more, but he had left very quickly after being dismissed, presumably to look for whatever he had forgotten at the beginning of class. Good. He didn't want to talk to Clint. He didn't want to talk to anyone. He had free period now, and he didn't want to to the Hufflepuff common room, or anywhere that Steve could follow him. Steve was not likely to look for him in a classroom that wasn't being used if he just stayed quiet at the back. He hadn't found him there yet, anyway. And the Hufflepuff common room was just annoying. Even in his actual bed, people still asked constantly if he was okay. Just because he was sitting quietly by himself, not talking to anyone about anything, that didn't mean that he wasn't perfectly fine!

"Hello."

Bucky nearly jumped out of his seat. He hadn't realized that there was anyone else in the room. "How long have you been in here?"

"We've been watching you."

Watching him? What did that mean? This kid was clearly older. He was wearing dark robes and a serious look. "Who are you?"

"I'm part of a club where house identity doesn't matter."

"What? Who said I care about that?" He didn't care about that. Did he? Bucky was still suspicious of this kid, but he was interested in what he had to say.

"Like I said, we've been watching you. If you want to know more, come to the seventh floor corridor with the troll tapestry in it after classes are over."

The mysterious kid walked out of the room, swishing his robes dramatically. Bucky went to the door to see where he went, but the hallway was empty. Bucky sat back down, his head spinning. He certainly had a lot more to think about now.

* * *

Classes were over, and though he had his doubts, Bucky was still deeply curious about what the older kid had said. Once he'd made sure no one was following him, no one meaning Steve, he made his way up to the seventh floor. There was no one else there. Bucky waited. Nothing happened. "Hello?" No answer. "Am I in the right place?" Stupid question. If he was in the wrong place, he wouldn't get an answer, would he? He was beginning to get frustrated now. He had half a mind to just leave when he heard a grinding noise behind him. He turned. The wall was no longer a wall. Bucky stared in amazement as a large, dark, metal door with a swirling pattern slowly grew out of the bricks. The door solidified. Then, after a moment, it opened, seemingly on its own, and Bucky walked in. The kid from earlier was standing inside. Bucky looked around. The room was huge, stone, and mostly dark, but there were other students of all ages moving about the room, around tables and shelves and other things. Some were studying large parchments that looked like maps. Some were going through large piles of books. Some were walking in between the work stations with cups of coffee. And it was all by the light of quite of few candles, hanging from the ceiling, floating after people, or just sitting on tables. There were even a few owls flying around the room, and cats weaving between people's feet. The boy from earlier didn't have much of an expression, but he still seemed to say, aren't you impressed?

"I'm Nick Fury. Welcome to Shield."

Bucky tried to think of something to say. "Don't you have any toads?"

"Excuse me? I bring you into a room that doesn't exist, with cool floating candles and owls and cats, and you ask me if we have any toads?" Nick gave Bucky an exasperated look. "Never mind that. Come here."

Nick led Bucky over to an area where one student with a clipboard was giving orders to another. Bucky heard her last bit of instruction as they walked up.

"Just be more careful this time, Coulson."

"Bucky Barnes, Maria Hill," said Nick as a means of introduction. "Hill will be giving you your assignment. I'll leave you to it."

"Assignment?" Bucky asked as Nick walked off after Coulson and Hill led him over to a wall with a magical projection of what looked like one of the maps Bucky had seen before. Or maybe he should call Nick Fury instead? Since Maria was Hill?

Hill passed her clipboard to another passing student and spoke. "This is a map of the school. A partial map, anyway. Part of what we do here is try to complete this map, which is what you will be helping to do." She led him further into the room, and Bucky was beginning to wonder how big it actually was, to a table with several more students, whose conversation quieted as they walked up. "Team, this is James Barnes. He will be helping you explore the North Tower. You can introduce each other and answer any questions Barnes has. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," the group answered as one.

Then Hill walked away. Bucky looked at the students he was apparently going to be working with. He really didn't know what to make of any of this yet. He'd had no time to process anything. He hesitated. Well, he thought, I've come this far. I've seen all this. I can't back out now.

* * *

A week passed, and Steve and Sam were becoming fast friends. They only had one class together, but Quidditch tryouts were coming up soon and Sam had convinced Steve to try out with him, once he'd explained what it was. They'd been practicing each day after classes, using the school brooms. Currently they were tossing an old Quaffle back and forth.

"So you haven't seen him since last week?" asked Sam, talking about Bucky. He tossed the Quaffle to Steve.

Steve threw it back. "No, and I don't know where he could be."

Sam tossed it high, and Steve flew after it. "Well, the castle is pretty big, you know."

Steve frowned and threw the Quaffle back. He had already considered the size of the castle. "Yes, but I haven't even seen him at mealtimes."

Sam noticed Steve's worried look as he threw the Quaffle back to him. "Maybe you're just missing each other."

Steve had considered this too. "Maybe."

This time Steve's throw was much shorter, causing Sam to dive after it, barely catching it before it hit the ground. He flew back where he had been. Steve was still frowning. He seemed really worried about his friend. "How about we go look for him."

Steve looked up. "What?"

Sam flew over. "We can look after classes. We'll find him eventually."

They started to drift back to the ground. "But... what about Quidditch practice?"

Sam gave a small smile. "First years never make the team anyway. Your friend is more important, right?"

Steve smiled back. "Yeah. Okay. Thank you."

"Last one back has to run through a ghost!" They both took off running and laughing towards the broom shed, Sam in the lead, Steve right behind.

"On your left!"


	3. Science Bros

Fifteen minutes was long enough to wait, thought Pepper. This better not become a routine. She tapped her wand against the side of her leg impatiently. She gave an exasperated sigh and made her way up the stairs to Tony's dorm. She knocked a few times, lightly. Nothing. "Tony?" Nothing. She knocked harder. "Tony! Are you awake in there?"

 _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ Tony jerked awake with a yelp, falling off of his bed and onto the floor. "Ow," he muttered. _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ There was no going back to sleep now. He looked around for the source of the banging.

"Tony! Wake up! We're going to be late!"

Pepper! Tony scrambled to his feet and ran to the door, opening it mid-bang. Peppers fist swung past where the door had been, hitting him right on the forehead and nearly knocking him over. "Ow!"

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry! Are you okay, Tony?" Pepper tried to get a look at where she'd smacked him, but he kept backing away.

"Hey, hey, stop, stop it, I'm fine!" Tony waved away Pepper's hands and looked up at her. "Why am I being abused this early in the morning?"

Pepper stopped trying to look at Tony's forehead and instead looked at his face. "Tony, we have class! We're in school! Magic school! We-" She stopped as she noticed Tony's bed. It was a mess. Pepper wasn't sure, but it looked like pieces of a computer. "Tony, what is all of this?"

Tony looked where Pepper was looking. "Oh. My laptop wasn't working. I was trying to fix it." He tried to think about when he'd stopped trying to work on it. Maybe he'd just fallen asleep?

"Tony, technology doesn't work in Hogwarts. I told you on the train, don't you remember?" Then Pepper remembered that they where supposed to be in class. "Tony! We have to go right now! Where's your wand?" He'd need more than that, probably, but just the wand would probably be okay just for the first class.

"Um..." Tony tried to remember where he'd put it. It was in his hand, wasn't it? And then he'd fallen off of the bed...

"Here! Let's go!" Pepper shoved Tony's wand into his hand. It had been under his bed.

Tony attempted to fix his hair as Pepper dragged him out of the room, leaving it empty and silent, except for the disassembled laptop scattered over Tony's bed.

* * *

Rhodey finished class and headed to the Great Hall for lunch. He looked for Tony and Pepper, which wasn't hard, as he could hear their argument halfway across the room.

"-and if I really want to I can take notes on my laptop-"

"-technology doesn't work in Hogwarts, Tony-"

"-it doesn't work _yet_ , if I can just-"

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, everybody." Rhodey put his arms back down, as he'd had to wave them to get Tony and Pepper's attention. "What's this about technology in Hogwarts? I'd love it if I could use the internet, I've been dying without it."

Pepper gave both him and Tony a kind, but slightly impatient smile. "I'd like to use it too, but as I've said, many times, it just won't work. There's just too much magic in the air."

"Yes, but," Tony interjected, "I was thinking that since magic is all around us that I could somehow fix my laptop, and maybe other things, to run on magic instead of electricity. That way, we wouldn't even need to charge anything." A quiet voice spoke from a little ways down the table.

"You assume that magic works in the same way as electricity."

Tony turned to face the speaker. "Well I did, at first, that was the the problem that I was having- hang on, who are you?"

"Um. Hi. I'm Bruce. Bruce Banner. Electricity is basically particles moving from one place to the other, right? We don't even know if magic is made of particles, much less if they move the same way as regular ones do."

He was a smallish boy with very curly brown hair, and rather large, rectangle shaped glasses. He was hunched over his food and his parchments, but he looked very interested in their conversation. He held out a hand for Tony to shake. Tony took it. "Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony gestured for Bruce to join their group and Rhodey did the same.

"Hello, Bruce, it's nice to meet you. I'm Pepper, this is James." Tony and Bruce fell into a discussion on the possibility of running technology on magic, and by the end of lunch it seemed as though they had been friends for years.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Bruce and Tony's friendship grew. Rhodey and Pepper were great, but Tony had never known someone who was as interested in science as he was.

"So have you made any progress yet?" Bruce asked as they spread out their homework in the Ravenclaw common room. This had become a routine, setting up their homework, then ignoring it completely in favor of their technology experiments. However, nothing had even made it out of the hypothesis phase so far. Just as well he'd have to leave early tonight, Bruce thought. Tonight he wasn't in the mood for more hopeless cases.

"No. I thought my laptop screen went on once, but it was just Rhodey using lumos and messing with me." Tony took out his laptop pieces and spread them out over the homework. "I know how it's _supposed_ to work, but it's just _not_."

Bruce looked at the pieces, hoping for some sort of inspiration. How could they even begin to do this? Their one hope was that, at the start, they had researched to see if anyone had tried something similar and hadn't found anything. That meant that they were working with nothing, but it also meant that no one smarter than them had tried and failed yet. It was a faint hope, and he knew it. "Maybe we're starting too big. Maybe we should start with a watch or something and work our way up."

Tony poked the laptop pieces with his wand. "Maybe."

Bruce's attention wandered. People started to light their wands as the sun went down and the common room got darker, but not yet dark enough to light the fire. We'd be using phone lights, thought Bruce, if we were at home. Wait. "Or, we could start by just trying to get magic to work like technology." They didn't have to replicate anything. There were already similarities. Like lights. "Lumos is similar to a torch, right? If we can just get magic to _act_ like technology, it's a start, right?"

Hearing this seemed to give Tony an idea. "Wait, start small, right?" Tony made a flipping motion with his hand, as if that would help him get the right words out. His mind was racing. "Maybe instead of phones, we could make, like magical walkie talkies or something."

"I mean, I don't know, is there a spell that lets you speak over a distance like that?"

"I don't know. We could check the library, though."

"We could. Like I said, it's a start."

"It's more than a start! I have an idea!"

Tony's eyes lit up with excitement and plans. Bruce could practically see the gears turning behind his eyes. Tony grabbed a random piece of parchment and started scribbling out designs. Bruce almost laughed at the sight, surprising himself. He hadn't laughed since... well. It had been a while. Bruce left quietly, not wanting to disturb Tony's thought process. Tonight there was somewhere he had to be.

* * *

Several hours later, Tony looked up from his sketches and realized that he was the only one left in the common room. The only lights were from his wand and the dim embers of the fire, and the only sound was a faint breeze coming through the window. I should go to bed, thought Tony. Usually he fell asleep before he was finished with whatever idea he had, but this time he still felt awake.

Bruce! He could show him the designs. He'd probably gone to bed, but he could wake up for this. Tony ran up to Bruce's dormitory, too eager to show him what he'd drawn to care about waking the other boys.

"Bruce! Banner! Look what-" However, upon reaching Bruce's bed, he discovered it to be empty. Tony looked to the other bleary-eyed boys in the dorm. "Where is he?"

One of the boys mumbled a reply, "Look, I don't know, he didn't come back. It's not my problem if he gets in trouble." The rest groaned a similar sentiment before rolling over and going back to sleep.

Tony tried to think of where he might go. He didn't seem the type to sneak out after they were supposed to. Maybe he was sick? Tony headed off to the hospital wing. Just to make sure he was okay.

He made it almost to the door when he heard noises and voices coming from the other side. He quickly hid around a corner, hoping they wouldn't come that way. He just managed to make out the end of the conversation.

"Last check, everyone had taken their potions, correct?"

"Yes, madame." Tony was confused. It sounded like a small group of children.

He quickly ducked back around the corner as the door to the hospital wing opened and the nurse and several children walked through. Luckily, Tony was unnoticed as the nurse ushered the children past and away. Tony recognized Bruce's curly hair at the back of the group, and followed them down the stairs all the way to the outside.

A light breeze blew, rustling the bushes, providing Tony with enough cover to follow the group at a distance across the grounds of Hogwarts. Tony heard a distant rumble of thunder from the east, where several dark clouds had gathered, making everything feel tense. Tony darted behind another bush as they continued forward, faster now. Where on earth where they going? It was so late, not even the older students were allowed out of bed now.

They turned a corner and Tony saw it.

The tree was huge, so big it would have been threatening even if its arms weren't moving all over the place. Tony hadn't had much time to explore the grounds, they'd only been there for a few weeks, but still, he'd heard of this. It was the Whomping Willow.

Why were they heading towards the Whomping Willow?

Tony could just barley make out the nurse's flick of her wand. Suddenly, the tree was still. Like magic, thought Tony, before he realized what he'd said and then mentally smacked himself in the face. The group of students headed for the tree, lead by the nurse, who was still holding up her wand, presumably holding the tree still. Tony leaned forward, trying to see where they could possibly be going. They reached the base of the tree. It was so dark, and Tony still couldn't see what was happening, so he leaned forward even more. There! Someone was heading down into the tree?-

CRASH! Tony fell out of his hiding place, somehow knocking over a large ornamental bust in the process and smashing it on the ground. Though they were several hundred meters away, the group by the tree turned to look.

"Tony?"

Tony had just enough time to look up and see Bruce's face, small, but lit up now by the moon coming over the clouds, before all of the children suddenly convulsed in pain. What was happening? Tony watched with disbelief as Bruce, his _friend_ , changed before his eyes. In a matter of seconds, what had once been a group of children was now a small pack of wolves. Most of them ran immediately to the tree, except for the one who had been Bruce, who stared at Tony for a moment before following the others.

Tony lay on the ground for a moment in shock, then somehow remembered that he wasn't supposed to be outside right now and that the nurse had definitely seen him. He took off across the grounds as fast as he could run. He was halfway back to the Ravenclaw tower before he realized that no one was following him. The nurse must have decided that the wolves were the priority. Had she seen his face? He didn't know. Tony slowed down a little and made his was quietly back to his bed.

He threw himself onto his bed, his head full of questions. What had just happened? This where Bruce had been? Wolves? _Wolves?_ It was the full moon. _Were_ wolves? What? How? Why didn't he tell me? I guess he doesn't know me _that_ well. I guess I don't know him that well. He's not going to hurt me?

Is he?

Tony's thoughts continued to swirl until the early morning, when he finally fell asleep. He would get to the bottom of it tomorrow.


End file.
